Strikeforce's Julie Kedzie OK with being 'boring' ahead of fight with Miesha Tate

She repeatedly apologizes because she won’t engage in the kind of snappy pre-fight banter that’s made one female fighter very famous in the past year.

She definitely feels the pressure, whether overt or covert, to produce a quotable swipe at her upcoming opponent, ex-champ Miesha Tate (12-3 MMA, 5-2 SF). She understands it could help bring her more attention. She understands it could feed her career.

It certainly did for that famous fighter, who singlehandedly reoriented the Strikeforce bantamweight division around her at about the time Kedzie was looking for work.

But like the person seated beside her during this interview, teammate and friend Sarah Kaufman, Kedzie isn’t interested in that kind of attention. Like Kaufman, Kedzie sees fighting as a job and a process of “self-development” more than an entertainment business. She of course acknowledges that part of things, but chooses to opt out of it.

“If I’m boring, people don’t have to interview me,” Kedzie told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com). “I don’t care. I could promote the fight myself. I only have, like, maybe 5,000 followers on Twitter as opposed to [Tate’s] 56,000. So if she’s the one people are interested in, they can talk to her.

“I know this makes me sound horrible or boring or whatever, but it’s possible to view mixed martial arts from both of those standpoints. Even though the sexy way to do it is to trash talk, that’s just not how I do it, and I’ve been very successful in my career.”

As she prepares for her first time back in the cage in more than a year, Kedzie is living with that choice. In every interview she’s given about her fight with Tate, which serves on the preliminary-card of “Strikeforce: Rousey vs. Kaufman” at Valley View Casino Center in San Diego and airs on Showtime Extreme, she’s been asked if Tate is distracted by her stated desire for a rematch with that famous person, Ronda Rousey.

The answer, of course, is no.

Kaufman, who attempts to win back the Strikeforce women’s bantamweight belt from Rousey, is living with it, too. Rousey’s presence has been inescapable for the teammates, to say nothing of women’s MMA.

An easy way for Kedzie to counterbalance the shadow Rousey has cast would be for her to say Tate is distracted, or blast the overwhelming attention heaped on Rousey, or any number of things fighters have said to get themselves attention since the advent of pre-fight interviews.

But she said that even if she tried to do that, she would suck at it because it’s an uncomfortable role, and she’s not the type of person that can easily pretend.

“I’m doing my own thing,” Kedzie said. “I’m staying true to myself as a fighter and a person, and that’s my story.”

Now eight years into her professional career, Kedzie has fought longer than most and in a way helped put women’s MMA on the map when she fought Gina Carano on a major EliteXC card five years ago. She gets no credit for this, of course, and said that injuries plus a lack of opportunities has made the past year of her life a struggle.

But she’s simply overjoyed to be back in the game and soon to fight.

Kedzie has no idea where a win over Tate will put her in the Strikeforce bantamweight division, and said she’s been given no indication that the fight carries any implications for a title shot. She argues she might not deserve one, anyway, with a promotional record that would improve to an even 1-1 with a win over Tate.

When she does establish herself in the division, however, she said she’ll speak out.

For Kedzie, that might not look a whole lot different than the time Kaufman spoke out after knocking an opponent senseless that, as champion, she was relegated to the preliminary card of a Strikeforce event. The next time she fought, it was on the co-main event.

But for now, Kedzie is quiet, at least about her career. About her life, she’s the polar opposite. Talk to her about her cats, Genghis Cat and Princess Pounces, or her new dog, Bailey, and her effervescent personality comes out. Watch her doing commentary for Invicta FC, and her bubbly energy jumps through the screen. Make her laugh, and she sounds like a teenager without a care in the world.

This is an interview about fighting, though, and she’s just bad at this stuff.

UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is probably the greatest female fighter on the planet, which is a tremendous feat. So why are we seemingly so obsessed with arguing about whether she could beat up men?